Great a series of made Kratos, in a fit of a blind hatred killing one Olympian for other and literally bathed in blood enemies smaller. Kratos, armed to the teeth better magical weapon that just might give Hellas. Who lost all the warrior who knows no fear, mercy, sympathy or empathy. Living embodiment of rage and vengeance.

Now this Kratos is dead. A strong bearded old man, carrying the ashes of his beloved woman to the top of the highest mountain in the nine worlds, only remotely looks like a heroic Spartan. He’s rusty, as tucked away in the cellar of the Blades of Chaos, had become heavy and slightly unwieldy, and most importantly — the burden of past mistakes, almost broke the former God of war. Kratos still hates the gods, any gods, without analysis, but in a new place prefers not to climb on the horns and sits in the Scandinavian wilderness as long as the dying wish of his wife does not make him with his son Atreem go on a long and adventurous journey.

Forget about the fixed camera, crazy combos of hundreds of blows and violent scenes with the murder of the highest creatures, compensating for the simplicity of the plot. The new God of War is first of all a spectacular and tragic heroic epic, and only then everything else.

From the first minute it becomes clear that colorful story cannot hope Kratos and Atrey engaged in the funeral of the FAE, each other, practically strangers. Faye is involved in the education of the boy a painful one, Kratos, experiencing the mistakes of the past, estranged from family and home is extremely rare. Atrey does not know his father, and he does not try to hide his disappointment in his son and openly declares to the child that he takes him with him against his own will, fulfilling the request of his deceased wife. Spartan rarely calls his son by name, preferring to do the suspended appeal “boy”, and almost does not look at him. That, in turn, calls Kratos only as “father” and tries unsuccessfully to achieve even the slightest approval. This game is somewhat reminiscent of a darker version of the Last of us. In the way of Kratos atreya teaches naive to survive in the harsh reality, creating him a real fighter, and the boy, in turn, awakens callous, a fierce adult humanity. Don’t want to spoil, let me just say that to follow the plot twists and how Kratos admonishes and teaches frail atreya, as Antoine de Saint-exupéry once weakened the relationship, much more interesting than dismember do not differ a special variety of enemies. The development of the father — son relationship is the best thing in God of War, and it is for the sake of the plot it is worth playing in the first place. And for the sake of the amazing cinematography of what is happening, and we are not so much talking about the schedule, although here the game can easily compete for the palm with Horizon Zero Dawn, how much about the operator’s work-in the game a delightful camera and there are no “editing transitions” and loading screens (teleports and loading from the checkpoint after death does not count).

But the plot plot, and in front of us still God of War, so fighting has not gone away. This time Kratos for the punishment of the enemies mainly use the Leviathan, a massive axe who, like Melnir the Torah, to return to the hands of its owner after a skillful throw, no less effectively and efficiently than once the Blades of Chaos.

The new formula, though it was devoid of the incredible dynamism of the previous parts, but works perfectly and fully corresponds to the spirit of restart — now the player has to fight thoughtfully, choosing targets, follow the flanks and rear, blocking, dodging and podgadyvaya moment for counterattacks. Kratos, despite its venerable age, is still capable of putting enemies packs — here’s the axe bites into the chest draugr, freezing it in place, the impact knocked the second enemy, interrupting his attack and allowing the Spartans to break out in response, a deafening flurry of blows, with the subsequent rebound. Yes, you have correctly considered, despite the fact that the game is shamefully washed away the scene of dismemberment, poor undead just literally ripped in half with his bare hands. A wave of the hand axe returns to the owner, maiming encountered along the way of enemies, only to a moment later to cut the hapless Ogre’s mouth. And Kratos this time practically no spending power to a savage roar, and is never shaken — the carnage he would do prudently and methodically, without undue haste. Atrey is not far behind, mostly preferring at the command of the father to shower enemies with arrows and call on the battlefield magical animals, but if the chance comes, the kid never misses an opportunity to stick a knife in the neck of the weakened enemy.

Sounds great, and so it is the first half a dozen hours of play, although over time, the fighting begins to occur on a well-established scheme and interest fades. The game, of course, offers a fairly rich opportunities for customization of equipment — such a number of armor, amulets and magic runes that improve performance and give access to new skills, Kratos did not have to see, but the approach chosen by the developers is still for the Amateur. Personally, I need to restrict ourselves to just two types of special melee attacks is not happy.

Unique types of monsters in God of War hardly a dozen typed, and in the second half of the game Santa Monica Studio resorts to, perhaps, the worst decision of all — begins to paint the same monster in different colors of the rainbow, each time giving it a new. Glows red — gently, throwing fire or explode after death. Green? Poisonous. Blue? Freezes. And this applies not only to ordinary enemies, but also to powerful mini-bosses trolls, which caused considerable excitement after the announcement of the game. All promised differences between them were reduced, by and large, to the text description in atrey’s diary. Full-fledged bosses, of course, look much more interesting against this background, although their analogues from the previous parts, including versions for PSP, will easily give beginners a head start. And the thing here is most likely that the sweetest thing in Santa Monica Studio left to continue. Won’t be a spoiler, except to say that none of the senior aces, despite regular mentions of them, to measure their strength not yet possible.

It turns out that based on metroidvania God of War, with its luxurious-looking and changing along the way, many fascinating puzzles for the first time a sane story and compelling characters, the weakest link is the fact that once propelled the series to the top of Olympus game — the combat system. If all of the above in the game is really made at the highest level, the fights here are simply “normal”, which can disappoint longtime fans of the harsh Spartan.

On the other hand, it is quite obvious that the non-stop bloody dismemberment was sacrificed quite consciously, in Santa Monica decided otherwise to place accents, humanize the main characters and create a world that is interesting to explore not only in order to find another hidden chest. Yes, the God of War narrative dominates and is, oddly enough, that’s fine.